5770 CF, 5850 or 5870

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Kraizk

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As i am sure this has been posted NUMEROUS times before i am sorry but i must ask that the community find it in them to answer it at least one more time.

I currently have a Sapphire Radeon 4870 TOXIC edition and have brought together enough funds to afford a new video card, so here is what i was looking at.

The brand i have chosen is XFX for their lifetime warranty, i wish more companies would do this but it seems it is a rare find on the newer generation of video cards. I have had multiple bad experiences with Sapphire and absolutely refuse to buy from them again. That being said...

My first though was to go with 2 5770's in crossfire, from what i have read this will give me equal performance to a 5870 at roughly $50 cheaper, this issue is there would be no room for upgrading in the future seeing as how ATI seems to discontinue all previous generations. I also have no third PCIE slot because I have a Crosshair III formula Motherboard. Plus my max resolution is 1440x900 and from what i have heard crossfiring that is near pointless.

My second was to just jump to a 5870 but i am a little bit worried about being burned on a $400 card... (was the previous and somewhat proud owner of a 2900XT... Regardless of how hot and unreliable it was...)

And my third thought was to settle at a 5850, saving $100 compared to the 5870 and $50 compared to the 2 5770's just makes me happy so i can buy games in the near future.

I am looking for opinions based on Bang for the Buck and performance, also wondering if it is worth upgrading at all at the moment.. I will list what i think is all relative specs below.

PhenomII 945 3.0ghz stock.
ASUS Crosshair III Formula
8 GB DDR3 1333 G-SKill
750W Thermal Take Tough Power
BenQ 2ms 19 inch wide screen max 1440x900
Sapphire Radeon 4870 TOXIC


 
Solution
paperfox
First I would like to say that getting crossfire cards is a bad idea since you can’t upgrade them, as you said they are cheaper.

Second, your resolution is so low compared to the powerful cards you want/are in your budget range. A single 5770 would annihilate anything at 1440x900 for awhile, and then you could crossfire another in a year or so for more performance when needed.

If you wanted to you could get the 5850, best price/performance out of all the high end cards, then that way you would not have to upgrade it for a very long time if at all. Crossfire 5850s would be out of the question, mainly because when you finally find the need to get another they would be so hard to find when maybe the 7000 series are well established...
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paperfox

paperfox

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First I would like to say that getting crossfire cards is a bad idea since you can’t upgrade them, as you said they are cheaper.

Second, your resolution is so low compared to the powerful cards you want/are in your budget range. A single 5770 would annihilate anything at 1440x900 for awhile, and then you could crossfire another in a year or so for more performance when needed.

If you wanted to you could get the 5850, best price/performance out of all the high end cards, then that way you would not have to upgrade it for a very long time if at all. Crossfire 5850s would be out of the question, mainly because when you finally find the need to get another they would be so hard to find when maybe the 7000 series are well established.

Since you already have a 4870 Toxic and have such a low resolution I see no need for you to upgrade. Perhaps if you spent some money on getting a bigger 1680x1050 or 1920x1080 screen and a 5850 would be good upgrade.
 
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wayneepalmer

wayneepalmer

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You really might want to get a better monitor before anything else. There are some really decent monitors out there that are way better than that 19" BenQ that are under $200 with a much higher resolution. That is where your problem is.

Hell, I'm running a 9300 GSO in an AMD HP desktop hooked to a 32" Samsung 720p LCD TV and a MSI GTS 250 on a ACER AL2223W in my green beast at 1680 X 1050.

That 4870 Toxic should be good for another year.
 
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welshmousepk

welshmousepk

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im not sure about where you are, but here in NZ its pretty easy.
you could always go for its bigger brother the e200hd. pretty much the same screen with a HDMI input. its older though, so i imagine there would be more units available.

its easy to go for a cheap monitor and get a bad quality POS. i have the e2200hd and its one of the best monitors ive ever used. 2 of my friends have bought the same monitor after seeing mine in action. truly excellent.
 
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Kraizk

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I am more then happy to consider the e2200hd. I am in the US and so far have found nothing. if you know a link or a store i am interested. That bestbuy monitor is $20 cheaper then newegg and saves me S&H no included in that savings. The monitor is actually AOC not envision, i don't know why besbuy sells them this way.
 
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bartleby3004

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im not quite sure where you are in the us but right now im running a 5850 and my big dilemma was cf 5770 or 5850 but i decided to go with the big dog and have yet to regret it but check out target for a monitor i bought a 22" acer monitor 1920 x 1080 for 170 with hdmi sweet ass deal i bought that for lans and i have a 42" lg led lcd that i run at home and man this card is amazing on both
 
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wayneepalmer

wayneepalmer

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That works. Just about ANY ACER monitor is a good value. I wouldn't get anything smaller than that one though. Worrying about pitching a bunch of money at an expensive GPU and then paring it to a 19 inch monitor is like buying a Ferrari and driving it on 4 "emergency spare" donuts.

Hell, that 4870 Toxic GPU that the guy who started this thread already has will suit him fine for quite a while yet.

I don't even know why he'd want to bother messing with it unless he's planning on blazing thru some really intense gaming and then it is a joke not to max out on a monitor first THEN see if he doesn't have enough GPU to suit him.
 
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